Well, I’m at it again! This Saturday, I’ll be speaking for TWO HOURS at a workshop on sustainable gardening with a focus on replacing lawns!

My talk is being hosted by Garden for the Environment, the organic demonstration garden on 7th and Lawton, and is courtesy of the SF Public Utilities Commission. The PUC also sponsored the Water Works event last month, where I gave tours of the Southeast Sewer Plant’s sustainable gardens. That was a blast, and I’m really looking forward to being able to speak on a subject of immense personal passion. I’m really pleased the SFPUC is making such a concerted push to bring awareness to so many aspects of coping with our record-setting drought, and am thrilled to be commissioned to give this free public workshop!

This particular event is called Life After Lawn. I’ll be talking at length about the negatives of lawns in our climate, from water usage and runoff to chemicals to monoculture to maintenance. I’ll be talking about the physical logistics of removing a lawn. I’ll be talking about conceptualizing your ultimate lawn-replacement goals and beginning to design the right choice for your needs. I’ll be talking natives and drought-tolerance and food gardens and habitat gardens and succulents and meadows, and even discussing non-plant options. Who knows, there might even be a moment of interpretive dance thrown in. 🙂 (Don’t you dare hold me to that one.)

My goal is to have every single person who shows up learn something new, and to walk away armed with knowledge that they can share and spread to their friends and neighbors. I want everybody to be inspired to replace their California lawns with something beautiful and water-wise! There will be tons of opportunity for questions and answers, and I’m hoping that group enthusiasm and member knowledge will help me learn something new myself.

The Details

It’s this coming Saturday, October 26, from 10am to noon.

At Garden for the Environment, corner of 7th Ave at Lawton.

Free! Come one, come all!

The event is listed as “sold out” on the Eventbrite website, but please don’t let that deter you if you’re interested. Word is they’ve got 45 people pre-registered but, as is often the case with free workshops, not everybody shows up. You don’t need to pre-register to come. Nobody will be turned away. Click the GFE link above for more info or directions.

The location is served by decent public transportation options, too: the 36, 43, and 44 stop right there, and it’s about a 15-minute downhill walk from Forest Hill Metro Station if you prefer to skip the buses. It’s two short blocks to the 6 and the 66. It’s about three blocks from the N Judah, and only two blocks more to Golden Gate Park and the 71.